How has Covid 19 impacted access to the labour market?
An UNRWA publication noted that:
“Unprecedented levels of poverty, skyrocketing unemployment rates and increasing despair are spreading across the country, severely hitting the Lebanese people and Syrian and Palestine refugees. This comes amid one of the worst economic crises in recent history, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, poor governance and an almost total collapse in basic services. Palestine refugees, living in overcrowded camps and marginalized by discriminatory policies, are historically one of the poorest people in the country. They are at the end of their rope.”
(Source: Source: UNRWA, “Hitting Rock Bottom – Palestine Refugees in Lebanon Risk Their Lives in Search of Dignity”, 21 October 2022)
An UNRWA report on the socio-economic situation of Palestine Refugees in Lebanon highlighted a World Food Programme assessment, which estimated the impact of the economic crisis and Covid-19 on the livelihoods and food security of people in Lebanon, including Palestine Refugees:
“The World Food Programme conducted a rapid assessment between April and May 2020 to estimate the impact of the economic crisis and COVID-19 on the livelihoods and food security of people in Lebanon including Palestine and Syrian refugees. The findings of the assessment showed clearly how Palestine refugees were struggling to cover their basic needs and suffering from the repercussions of the economic crisis as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and its ensuing restrictions. 62 per cent of the interviewed Palestine refugees indicated that their household income was reduced following COVID-19 and the wave of public unrest compared with the previous year (2019) and 11 per cent resorted to alternative sources of income to compensate for their income losses. During the period of the survey, 39 per cent of Palestine refugees reported that they lost their jobs and 21 per cent witnessed a reduction in their salary. A high proportion of the Palestine refugees who were interviewed indicated that they reduced their food consumption in the last 30 days (before and during the period of the survey April/May 2020) with 53 per cent indicating that they ate less expensive food, 15 per cent skipped meals and 8 per cent went for a whole day and night without eating.
(Source: UNRWA, “Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon: Struggling to Survive”, January 2022, p. 5)
As part of the 2020 annual implementation report on its Gender Equality Strategy, UNRWA wrote about the suspension of microcredits for Palestine refugees:
“In Lebanon, the loans provided to the Palestine refugees by the Microcredit and Community Support Program (MCSP) were suspended due to the degradation of the economic situation and to COVID-19. A review of the programme will be carried out in 2021.”
(Source: UNRWA “UNRWA Gender Equality Strategy 2016-2021: annual implementation report January-December 2020”, May 2021, p. 10)
An article published by UNRWA highlighted the dire situation of those who reside in camps:
“UNRWA is urgently seeking to help Palestine refugees by providing them with emergency cash assistance in US dollars and a strengthened COVID-19 response to limit the spread of the virus in camps. It is also seeking funds to finish the reconstruction of the Nahr el Bared refugee camp in the north of the country near Tripoli, which was destroyed in 2007 when fighting broke out between the Lebanese Armed Forces and Fatah al-Islam, a militant group. [...] Even before the pandemic and the financial meltdown of Lebanon, Palestine refugees lived in poverty and faced systemic restrictions that limited their employment, property ownership and, at times, movement. Joblessness has been high in Palestine refugee camps for many years, but the collapse of the Lebanese economy in the last few months has left many of them feeling desperate, especially as UNRWA has been struggling with an acute financial crisis itself. COVID-19 has been the latest in a series of recent devastating blows to a community that has suffered marginalization and uncertainty for decades.”
(Source: UNRWA, “UNRWA Raises Alarm on the Situation of Palestine Refugees in Lebanon”, 1 April 2021)
Based on an assessment by WFP, UNDP Lebanon projected that:
“The expectation is that more Lebanese families will be prepared to take on lower-quality jobs with worse conditions that previously were assumed by refugees, leading to anticipated tensions between Lebanese and non-Lebanese communities as it has been the main driver of tensions in the past.”
(Source: UNDP/UN Lebanon “Rapid Socio-Economic Impact Assessment Lebanon”, 2 November 2020, p. 11)
The UNRWA Protection brief offers a wider overview of current challenges faced by Palestine refugees living in Lebanon.
“• Palestine refugees in Lebanon face substantial challenges to the full enjoyment of their human rights. PRL are socially marginalized, have very limited civil, social, political and economic rights, including restricted access to the Government of Lebanon’s public health, educational and social services and face significant restrictions on their right to work and right to own property. In 2016, 65 percent of PRL lived under the poverty line, as did 87 percent of PRS in March 2020.
• The conflict in Syria has not only caused additional strain on services within Lebanon, but has also significantly impacted its economy. The fragile financial situation was most recently exacerbated by the depreciation of the Lebanese Lira and the global COVID-19 pandemic. The significant financial challenges facing Lebanon have had deep socio-economic consequences for both Lebanese and non-Lebanese residents. This includes a significant impact on the Palestine refugee population, already vulnerable due to their poor socio-economic situation and precarious legal status in the country.
• COVID-19 hit Lebanon in the midst of an economic crisis, where inflation and their precarious legal status had already made many refugees even more vulnerable to economic shocks. As in many other countries, containment measures including lockdowns further hindered economic activity and resulted in increased unemployment and poverty. In Lebanon’s already fragile financial situation, this has led to an increase in prices of consumer goods and an overall increase in the cost of living, in turn leading to an increased number of refugees who are in urgent need of financial support to be able to purchase essential items such as food and medicine, pay their rent and avoid evictions. […]
• The social, political and economic situation in Lebanon deteriorated further in 2020, marked by street protests, the COVID-19 outbreak and associated measures such as lockdowns and successive confinements, loss of livelihoods, and disruption of regular life and education. These developments have increased the levels of mental distress and exacerbated the protection risks especially for children and women. An increase of child labour, including begging, rubbish collection and working regularly on the street, , and increased cases of child marriage, child abuse and harassment and violence against girls and women have been observed during the pandemic. In addition, although the Palestinian community was not directly affected by the 4 August 2020 blast in the port of Beirut, the tragic events have impacted all residents in the country, exacerbated mental health and psycho-social support (MHPSS) needs, and are expected to add to the growing tensions and the economic crisis.”
(Source: UNRWA: “Protection brief: Palestine refugees living in Lebanon”, September 2020)
In the dashboard below, UNHCR reported that “Across Lebanon […] 80% of Palestinians have either lost their income- generating possibilities or have had their salaries reduced since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak or even before.”:
(Source: UN Inter-Agency Cooperation, Lebanon, “In Focus: Rise of evictions due to increased economic vulnerability”, July 2020, p. 1)
A collective of NGOs working in Lebanon made a joint submission to the Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review in 2020 in which they stated that:
“Before Covid-19, Palestinian refugees were enduring a humanitarian and socio-economic crisis impacting their
rights, such as the right to access and practice work. The pandemic made things worse. Unemployment among the Palestinian workforce in Lebanon is currently around 80% (based on a 2019 study on the labor market and unemployment by Dr. Najib Issa). The financial crisis and limits imposed by banks and the government led to a slowdown of remittances by Palestinians to their families and relatives, exacerbating the situation of refugees.”
(Source : Najdeh Association, Development Action Without Borders (Naba’a), Palestinian Human Rights Organization (PHRO) et al, “UPR 2020: Palestinian Refugee Rights in Lebanon”, July 2020, p. 13)
(Source: WFP “Assessing the Impact of the Economic and COVID-19 Crises in Lebanon”, June 2020, p. 8)
The World Food Programme reported in June 2020 about the impact of COVID-19 on employment in Lebanon:
“In order to capture the COVID-19 impact on employment status in Lebanon, respondents were asked whether their individual ability to carry out their work activities has been jeopardized as a result of containment measures.
[…]
The New Humanitarian (formerly IRIN News) reported in April 2020 about the impacts of COVID-19 on the refugee population in Lebanon:
“Refugees say some of the new hardship is due to limitations on refugee movement imposed by local authorities. Although work in food production is technically allowed during the lockdown, many refugees are afraid to leave the camps to work in the fields as they once did.
“Here in the camp, the municipality has forbidden anyone to go out,” Assaf said. “Currently, no one has money. At the end of the month, most people don’t have bread,” much less medicine, she added.
“There’s no work; it’s absolutely forbidden,” agreed Aisha Ibrahim, who lives in an informal camp in Bar Elias with her husband, mother-in-law, and six children – three of whom have disabilities. Ibrahim said camp residents had been threatened with deportation if they ventured out for anything other than food and medicine.
Even before the financial meltdown and before coronavirus, according to a UN assessment published in December 2019, only one third of refugees in Lebanon had regular work, and the vast majority – 96 percent – were in debt.
According to UNHCR, it was already extremely difficult for many refugees to get by, and now the pandemic is making it worse. “The situation is having a severe impact on refugees’ access to livelihoods, morale, and ability to meet their basic survival needs like rent, food, and medicine,” Abou Khaled said, “[Much] as it [also] is for vulnerable Lebanese communities.”
(Source: The New Humanitarian, “How COVID-19 is limiting healthcare access for refugees in Lebanon”, 21 April 2020)47
“During the reporting period, Lebanon continued to suffer from multiple crises that affected daily life on every level Increased global prices, namely for wheat, oil and fuel, have resulted in runaway inflation rates (the average annual increase in Lebanon’s consumer price index stood at 215.03 per cent during the first half of 2022 when compared to the same period in 2021) […] Food prices have increased by more than 15 times since October 2019, while people’s purchasing power has significantly decreased and unemployment rates have risen.”
(Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, 2022 Emergency Appeal Progress Report for the reporting period 1 January – 30 June 2022”, 3 November 2022, p. 11)
“According to recent UNRWA data [UNRWA, RSSD, Crisis Monitoring Report – high frequency survey results, March 2022] Lebanon’s multi-layered crises have led to increased poverty with 86 per cent of Palestinian families now living below the poverty line and unable to cover their basic needs. This represents a significant increase from the 73 per cent recorded in July 2021.”
(Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, 2022 Emergency Appeal Progress Report for the reporting period 1 January – 30 June 2022”, 3 November 2022, p. 11)
47 Publication date is outside of this reports reference period, however this excerpt was as it contained relevant information on the lockdown impacts.
With reference to the means of basic subsistence, UNRWA reported that:
“As Lebanon’s crisis deepens, so do Palestinian refugees’ poverty and frustrations. Poverty among Palestinian refugees is increasing, with an UNRWA survey finding that 86 percent were living below the poverty line in March 2022 compared to 73 percent in July 2021. This is a result of rising prices and an end to government subsidies, with a growing proportion of household expenses being directed towards increasingly expensive fuel and electricity. In March 2022, electricity and fuel accounted for 15 percent of household expenditure, compared to 6 percent in July 2021, while expenditure on food dropped from 45 percent to 39 percent over the same period, suggesting that households have reprioritized resources, cutting down on elements usually considered essential, such as food. With the rise in food prices, nearly 90 percent of those surveyed in March reported purchasing leftovers from the market, while two-thirds reported reducing the number of meals they had eaten in the seven days proceeding the survey.5 The price of a survival minimum expenditure food basket in Palestine refugee camps in March 2022 was a 400 percent increase on the October 2019 price.6 52 percent of households reported taking on debt in the three months prior to the survey in March 2022, compared to 47 per cent in July 2021. Some Palestinian households, particularly in Tyre and Central Lebanon Area, reportedly cut their generator subscriptions, leaving them reliant on one or two hours’ electricity a day from the national grid. Lack of electricity also left streets darker in camps, limiting safe movement after dark (reported as a particular issue for women and children), and made it more difficult for children to do homework. In the Beqaa, the particularly harsh winter, coupled with the usual annual jump in unemployment as agricultural work halted until spring, left families struggling to pay for the additional fuel needed for heating. In Beqaa and the North particularly, cold houses, a lack of heating and lack of adequate winter clothes were described as having a significant impact on people’s health, particularly amongst groups such as older persons.”
(Source: UNRWA, “UNRWA Protection Monitoring Report – Quarter 1 (Q1) 2022”, 1 July 2022, p. 2)
“Lebanon: sector-specific interventions : […] The Lebanon Field Office (LFO) food price monitoring survey – implemented at the end of the reporting period – showed an average 32 per cent increase in the cost of a standard food basket since the beginning of 2022. Some of the most affected areas are the Central Lebanon Area (40 per cent increase) and the Bekaa Valley (36 percent increase). […]
(Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan Emergency Appeal 2022”, 18 January 2022, p. 8)
Additionally, as discussed by UNRWA in their 2022 Emergency Appeal report for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan:
“For Palestine refugees, the crisis is experienced on every level. According to recent UNRWA data, 73 percent of Palestine refugee families are now living below the poverty line and are unable to cover their basic needs in 2021, with 58 percent of refugees reporting having to reduce meal sizes and frequency. Nearly half of all household expenditures is spent on food reflecting a critical food security situation. The situation for PRS is of particular concern. A socio-economic survey conducted by UNRWA in 2020 found that 87.3 percent of PRS live below the absolute poverty line and 11.3 percent exist in a state of abject poverty. Essential commodities are increasingly out of reach for most and PRS are being pushed into ever more negative coping mechanisms to survive, including missing meals, child marriage, child labour, debt and unsustainable borrowing practices. This is also exacerbating the isolation of people with disabilities as families struggle to provide for their additional needs. The stress of this
situation is further driving an increase in violence against children, intimate partner violence, and violence in the community as interpersonal disputes erupt into shootings.”
(Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Jordan and Lebanon Emergency Appeal 2022”, January 2022, p. 16, last accessed 29 November 2022)
“The protection situation in Lebanon continued to deteriorate during the reporting period. Key concerns identified through quarterly protection monitoring, work with community groups and organizations and information from UNRWA programmes included: (i) difficulties in accessing services due to high transportation costs, particularly in relation to accessing education; (ii) increased evictions or eviction threats as landlords are requesting rent in US dollars; (iii) increasing exposure to substance abuse, particularly amongst children and youth; (iv) high levels of sexual violence, including against children; (v) child labour, including begging and working on the streets; and (vi) parents economically struggling to support children, including in their commitment to keep children in school.”
(Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, 2022 Emergency Appeal Progress Report for the reporting period 1 January – 30 June 2022”, 3 November 2022, p. 11)
“Palestine refugees continued to struggle under the weight of multiple overlapping crises in Lebanon during the reporting period, including a rapidly deteriorating socio-economic and financial situation, exacerbated by the impact of COVID-19 and the repercussions of the 2020 Beirut Port explosion. The cost of basic items soared after government subsidies were gradually lifted on fuel and medicines, leading to extreme fuel shortages and reduced access to medicines. At the same time, the LBP continued to depreciate against the US$, placing basic goods further out of reach for many people. […] The condition of PRS in Lebanon remains of particular concern with data from internal UNRWA monitoring mechanisms indicating that an increased number were unable to cover their basic needs during the course of the year. The Food Security Cluster in Lebanon reported that the food component of the survival minimum expenditure basket recorded an 11 percent increase between July and August 2021, representing a staggering 628 per cent increase since October 2019. [See 2021 3rd Quarter Sector Dashboard, Food Security and Agriculture, Inter Agency Cooperation, Lebanon]. According to UNRWA surveys, the poverty rate reached 87 per cent amongst PRS and 73 per cent amongst PRL in 2021”
(Source: UNRWA, “Annual Operational Report 2021” 27 October 2022, p. 99)
UNRWA reports that more stateless Palestinians do not reach out for UNRWA’s support services due to struggling to survive day-to-day:
“In Lebanon, 1,402 Palestine refugees (1,276 PRL, 126 PRS) benefited from PSS through the Agency’s Protection and Health programming. In addition, the Protection team responded to ongoing requests for legal counselling, particularly from PRS concerned about their residency status in Lebanon and legal assistance was extended to 3,402 refugees. Community-based protection activities involved 1,095 individuals, although it is becoming more difficult to engage Palestine refugees in these activities given their need to focus on day-to-day survival.”
(Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, 2022 Emergency Appeal Progress Report for the reporting period 1 January – 30 June 2022”, 3 November 2022, p. 6)
“The impact of underfunding […] In Lebanon, only one round of cash assistance could be disbursed to 61,502 vulnerable PRL […] Environmental health activities and emergency repairs and maintenance of UNRWA installations in Lebanon were also not conducted due to unavailability of funds.”
(Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, 2022 Emergency Appeal Progress Report for the reporting period 1 January – 30 June 2022”, 3 November 2022, p. 7)
“Winter assistance […] in Lebanon, UNRWA will be able to assist only 718 PRL and 1,771 PRS families (compared with the planned 16,193 PRL and 8,450 PRS) through the distribution of in-kind fuel assistance (to be provided in early 2022).”
(Source: UNRWA, “Annual Operational Report 2021” 27 October 2022, p. 101)
“Funding constraints affected the provision of extensive cash support to vulnerable PRL. During the reporting period, the UNRWA Lebanon Field Office (LFO) added supplementary vulnerability targeting criteria to prioritize those PRL in most need of assistance, making the most of available funding.”
(Source: UNRWA, “Annual Operational Report 2021” 27 October 2022, p. 115)
UNRWA struggles to provide assistance to stateless Palestinians in Lebanon, whilst noting that:
“In this challenging context, the humanitarian assistance provided by UNRWA remains a lifeline for the overwhelming majority of Palestine refugees.
[…] Yet, UNRWA continues to struggle in securing the necessary funds to carry out its operations and implement its mandate […] In Lebanon, UNRWA has not been able to expand the amount of cash assistance to the most vulnerable groups of Palestine refugees, nor was it able to secure further funding to support vulnerable Palestinian refugees from Syria.
(Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan Emergency Appeal 2022”, 18 January 2022, p. 6)
“In 2022, UNRWA requires US$ 365 million to continue to respond to the increased humanitarian needs of Palestine refugees in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. The funding shortfall faced by UNRWA under all of its funding portals in 2021 jeopardized the continuity of essential services and the provision of emergency assistance. […] The funding shortfall also limited the provision of cash assistance to PRL”.
(Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan Emergency Appeal 2022”, 18 January 2022, p. 11)
“For Palestine refugees in Lebanon, the situation could not be more precarious, given the multiple and compounding crises affecting all aspects of life in the country in 2021. The economy has crumbled, inflation is at a record beating level and, for those people who are already marginalized, the pressure on earnings and livelihoods has reached an unbearable level. In Lebanon in 2020, 87 percent of Palestinian refugees from Syria were living in poverty and this figure is expected to have increased over the last 12 months as the situation in the country continues to deteriorate”
(Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan Emergency Appeal 2022”, 18 January 2022, p. 6)
“For Palestine refugees in Lebanon (PRL), the crisis has led to increased poverty with 73 percent of families now living below the poverty line and unable to cover their basic needs, and 58 per cent reported having to reduce meal sizes and frequency, according to UNRWA surveys. The situation for Palestinian refugees from Syria (PRS) is of particular concern with 87.3 percent already living below the absolute poverty line in 2020 and 11.3 percent existing in a state of abject poverty. PRS are being pushed into ever more negative coping mechanisms to survive, including missing meals, child marriages, child labour, debt and unsustainable borrowing practices. Families struggle to provide for the additional needs of the elderly and family members with disabilities.”
(Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan Emergency Appeal 2022”, 18 January 2022, p. 9)
“The Protection and Humanitarian Principles team will work closely with other Agency programmes to organize referrals and will continue to implement revised standard operating procedures (SOPs) for emergency protection cash, including for clear links to a protection shock (e.g., GBV, eviction), to ensure narrow targeting and less emphasis on previously applied sustainability criteria whereby cash was only given when its impact would be sustained. This is in recognition of the relatively limited impact such an injection of cash is likely to have in the current context of Lebanon where so many people are struggling to maintain dignified lives and their self-protection capacity.
(Source: UNRWA, “Syria, Lebanon and Jordan Emergency Appeal 2022”, 18 January 2022, p. 41)
“Relief and Social Services: UNRWA supports 61,709 Palestine refugees in Lebanon through a social safety net programme with yearly payments of US$ 130 per individual. As of January 2022 the Agency will also support more than 29,000 refugees from Syria (PRS) with monthly payments of US$ 25 per person. […] This level of support is below the actual needs and expectations of the refugees”.
(Source: UNRWA, “Palestine Refugees in Lebanon: Struggling to Survive” 18 January 2022, p. 12)
Palestinian Refugees from Syria incur debt as a way to secure their basic needs and cope with the rising cost of living:
“A staggering 74 per cent of the PRS families use debt as a strategy to cope with expenses. […] PRS families across the country are equally affected inside and outside camps, but with variations among areas of residence ranging from 69 and 70 percent in the Saida and the Tyre areas, respectively, to 79.6 and 81.3 percent in the NLA and the Beqaa area, respectively. […] Three quarters of the PRS families incur debt on food (75.4 percent), with percentages of food-related family debts peaking at 83.7 percent among the severely food insecure. Half of them incur debt on rent (50.3 percent). Other sources of debt include medical expenses (27.9 percent), electricity bills (13 percent), transportation costs (two percent) and other miscellaneous sources (16.3 percent) 46 such as tobacco, drinking water and educational expenses.”
(Source: UNRWA, “Socio-economic Survey on Palestine Refugees from Syria Living in Lebanon”, 28 April 2021, p. 60)